In some conventional systems, a radio frequency (RF) signal may be converted to an intermediate frequency (IF), and then from IF to a baseband signal, where the IF may be in the megahertz range. Generally, the RF signal may be mixed with a local oscillator signal that results in two (double) sideband signals that are the sum of the frequencies of the two signals and the difference of the frequencies of the two signals. One of the two sideband signals may be chosen as an IF signal, and this IF signal may be the same for all received RF signals. Therefore, a radio that may receive a plurality of channels, such as an AM or FM radio, may tune to a particular station by changing the local oscillator signal frequency such that the IF remains constant. With a constant IF, most of the receive path may be common in the receiver.
Today, much of radio receiver development may be driven mostly by a great demand for mobile wireless communication devices, including handsets. With the ever-decreasing size of mobile handsets, capacities of smaller batteries may be an issue. As most of these handsets may utilize complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology for analog-to-digital conversion, and for much of the processing of voice and data signals, a very important factor to consider is that it may be advantageous for CMOS devices to operate at lower frequencies. This may be crucial since CMOS devices have power dissipation directly related to the speed at which the CMOS devices switch. The faster the frequencies, the faster the CMOS device switching speed, and therefore, the greater the amount of power consumed. Therefore, receivers may be designed to downconvert the high frequency RF, which may be in gigahertz range, to a lower frequency, preferably to a baseband frequency, as quickly as possible.
Another important factor to consider may be the signal integrity in the signal path. Because signals received at a receiver's antenna may be very weak, for example, six millivolts (6 mV), the first component to process the received signal may be a low noise amplifier (LNA) that is designed to amplify signals while adding very little additional noise to the signal being amplified. The amplified signal may be filtered to attenuate undesired signals, amplified further to increase the strength of the signal, and mixed with local oscillator signals to downconvert to lower frequencies. Factors such as process, voltage and temperature (PVT) variations may also result in a DC offset.
The DC offset may result from different sources, for example, from device mismatch within a receiver and/or from interference from other received signals. Generally, a time-invariant DC offset due to device mismatch may be cancelled at a factory where the receiver is manufactured. However, there may be very slowly time-varying DC offset due to interference from other signals. This type of DC offset cannot be cancelled at the time of manufacture since effects of the interference signals may vary over time during operation.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.